


How Great a Fool

by Furorscribiendi



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-17
Updated: 2012-08-17
Packaged: 2017-11-12 07:40:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/488383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Furorscribiendi/pseuds/Furorscribiendi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a pattern neither one can break.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Great a Fool

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eaivalefay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eaivalefay/gifts).



Thor leaned against the doorway, staring at the sleeping figure curled up on the bed in the center of the large, circular room. Soft light ran along the length of the wall, glowing steadily, blending with the shadows of the covers pooled around Loki's form. He didn’t know when Loki had started to slumber in such a manner, curled up onto one tiny spot of the bed, as if by huddling he could keep himself warm somehow. Or perhaps it was some attempt to curtail the coldness inside him. 

Jotun always ran to the cold side. 

Thor remembered a different time. Once, Loki had burned bright, dazzled the eye with smiles and the mind with wit. But it was now cruelty that marred his smiles and viciousness that tempered his wit. 

It wounded all the more that Thor could see the true Loki in glimmers. He had seen it when he’d smashed the Bifrost and Loki had fallen from it. He had seen it there that night on the mountain before the arrogant son of Stark had thwarted him.

But now, Loki was home. The Tesseract was back in Asgardian hands and Loki was imprisoned. Thor could not bring himself to throw Loki in one of the cold cells in the depths of the city. He could not forget all that had passed between them. So he had placed Loki here, in a large, airy room not so different from Loki's old quarters. Thor still held hope he could save Loki from himself.

“You know,” Loki’s voice was soft-spoken, but hard. “I’m fairly sure watching a prisoner sleep isn’t exactly normal procedure.”

That lithe figure uncurled itself and sat up with a fluid grace that left Thor’s mouth dry. He remembered once how that body had moved against his, in sparring of all sorts. He looked up to find Loki regarding him, his green eyes betraying nothing of his thoughts. Thor looked down; Loki had an uncanny ability to see right down into a person’s heart and pluck out their fondest wish for his own gain. 

“Oh come now, surely we are past that,” the rustle of bed sheets came and then the sound of Loki’s bare feet on the cool floor. “This is not to be an interrogation?”

Thor looked up slightly, Loki’s toes in his view. They curled and flexed, as if betraying Loki’s impatience. 

Thor simply shrugged. “I cannot make you talk. You will not talk.”

“So why come to my gilded cage?” Loki’s shins came into view with another step, and Thor found himself hoping that Loki hadn't discarded the sleeping garb provided for him. “You always want something.”

“I want to know why,” Thor lifted his gaze to Loki’s face, ignoring the dangerous pace his heart picked up when all he saw was skin. “Why do this, at all?”

Loki’s eyes grew turbulent. Fear, doubt and rage, they all roiled there for a brief second before the calm descended once more. Then a contemplative look came to those smooth, angular features. When the slight smile came, Thor swore his heart sank.

“Do you think I don’t have enemies? That they won’t come for me? The Chitauri are the least,” Loki stepped in closer, looking burnished and bright in the soft light. “Are you willing to set all of Asgard to war for me?”

Somehow, Thor managed to keep Loki’s gaze. “I would. For I do believe in you, brother. Even if you do not believe in yourself.”

A part of Thor wondered if it would have been easier if he had yelled and shouted, had hit something as he had been wont to do all those years ago. But soft words and sincerity seemed to hit much harder than he thought they ever would. It was easy to see the shock get swallowed by the façade of calmness. But there were cracks and now Loki would lash out, hard and fast.

“Then you are still as great a fool as I suspected. A wise ruler would cast me aside, banish me from the kingdom. Mayhap all this clouds your better judgment.”

Loki reached out and flicked at Thor’s hair contemptuously. Thor caught his hand but Loki was quick, much quicker than Thor recalled. That hand twisted and latched onto his wrist, grip tight and unyielding. Thor kept Loki’s gaze for a moment before he reached up with his free hand, cupping Loki’s face. 

“Brother, it is still not too late. Give up this dream. Give up the throne you seek and come back to us.”

Thor’s voice sounded harsh in the dim and Loki’s retort sunk back in deep. 

“Those are the easy words of someone who knows they have a throne.” Loki stepped in, and Thor could feel the cold radiating from him, biting into his exposed skin with delicious minute prickles. “The easy words of someone who never thought about what they considered their due. Is that what you considered me?”

Loki was all but flush against him, a hand toying with the ends of Thor’s hair. There was a dangerous, hooded expression to Loki’s eyes that roused Thor. 

“Is that what you told yourself when you _took_ your pleasure of me?” Loki’s voice was hardening, razor sharp. “That it was nothing less than your due?”

“You gave of yourself freely,” it didn’t help that Thor couldn’t quite keep the wounded tone from his voice. “Never once did I…”

“Then more fool I,” Loki snorted, his fingertips skimming over Thor’s stubble to dance across his lips. “For I knew of your callousness and I foolishly, _stupidly_ , thought that you could change. Would change. Sif and the others simply goaded you, had you heading on that foolish, reckless path,”

Loki’s fingers had, somehow, undone his cape and it had pooled at his feet. Those nimble fingers were working on unbuckling things and Thor was truly wondering just what was going on here. Then somehow, his chest armour was off, clanking to the floor. Loki’s hands were smoothing over his chest, leaving icy trails in their wake. It took all of Thor’s strength not to push into that touch. By the Gods, he had missed this. Then Loki leaned in, his voice cool and lips brushing against Thor’s earlobe.

“If you had listened to me back then, _brother_ ,” Loki paused to bite gently on Thor’s earlobe before scraping his teeth against it. “You could have been so much more. All powerful, all knowing. None would have contested you and we could have ruled side by side. Together.”

This was what Loki did, what he always did. Worked his way right down to the center of one’s utmost desire and ripped out its bloody, beating heart.

“But you squandered it, for Sif, then a Midgardian. And then for Sif again. Sif, who swans about thinking she’s better than everyone. Does your Midgardian quim know of her? She must if she reads the tales. What do you think she’ll think of us, hm?”

Loki’s hands skimmed down, flirting with the edge of his pants. A deep, shuddering breath escaped Thor’s chest and Loki pounced. His hand slid down, cupping Thor through the thin cotton and squeezing mercilessly. It was as if his hips had a mind of their own, and they bucked up into Loki’s touch. The low chuckle that came from Loki’s throat was like fire in his veins. Thor shoved him back towards the bed.

“What would they think,” Loki’s voice was low and taunting as he slid onto the bed, on his knees. A pensive look came to his face and he ran a hand through his hair. “If they saw the mighty Thor at my mercy, being led around by his cock?”

His voice, his words, they all crawled under Thor’s skin and soothed the itch he had learned to live with. Thor strode over to the bed and Loki struck, grasping Thor’s hand and yanking sharply. Thor fell onto the bed and the next thing he knew Loki’s weight was settling on his hips. Thor reached up to touch Loki, but apparently the other wanted no part of that, for Loki's hands shot out, and Thor found his own pinned to the bed. Those green eyes were turbulent again, before a cunning look settled in place. Loki held onto Thor’s wrists with one hand, the other moving down to trace out his collarbone.

“The Midgardian is soft. Too soft for the likes of you. You do admire her. For her mind, what she is capable of. The love you feel for her is a pale thing. …I suppose Sif comes in a close second. She battles like you, drinks like you, swaggers about like you… I imagine fucking her is rather like fucking a close friend. But me… ah, there is the crux of your problem,”

Thor could not bring himself to push against Loki's grip, no matter his better judgment. He felt as if his heart was trying to burst from his chest and his pants were now unbearably uncomfortable. But Loki’s hand moved down to the edge of his shirt, sharply yanking it up, and Thor’s breath caught in his throat as those deft fingers wandered down to a nipple, toying with it. 

“I know how you feel about me, how it burns in your veins, in your soul. You try to bank it, but it flares up and you don’t know what to do with it. It will consume you if you let it. And that is what you fear the most, being left a burnt out shell of your former self should this heat devour you from the inside out.”

Loki’s fingers twisted gently on his nipple and Thor arched up into it. Gods, Loki was flaying him down the bone with his words. It was something cathartic, that Loki voiced all these deep, dark things he himself thought but never dared to say. When Loki’s hand clawed, fingernails suddenly digging sharply into his belly, Thor arced into it. His torso lengthened, went taut, and faint red trails were left from Loki’s fingers. 

When Loki’s hand paused at the clasp of Thor’s breeches, they were a moment suspended in time. But then Loki was leaning in, his voice soft and mocking.

“I think we’ve talked enough for tonight,” the final twist of the knife was completed with, “brother.”

Thor could feel the humiliation flush across, red and bright as Loki rolled off him and curled up on the bed once more. When he glanced over, Loki lay away from him, that slim back facing him once more. Slight knobs of his spine were evident and for a moment, Thor wanted to reach out and run his fingers down the length, smooth across the cool skin. But instead he slid from the bed and walked over to the door, tugging his shirt back down. His chest armour and cape were scooped up before he quietly left. 

And the stupid part, Thor thought to himself, was that Loki knew he’d come back. This wasn’t the first time Loki had done this. Thor didn’t want to consider how great a fool that made him, knowing he would come back time and time again, to the brother he couldn't lose.

**Author's Note:**

> So I might have insisted to high heaven that my friend see Avengers, "Immediately. As in as soon as bloody possible, you're gonna love it so much" when it was in theatres. And when she came back, she asked for, " _Thor/Loki where Thor has Loki confined to/imprisoned in Asgard and they're sleeping together, because Loki's always been the only one able to give Thor what he needs: sexual pain. BDSM!Loki/Thor where Loki's the sub, but also the dominator_.
> 
> And my brain spat this out. There will probably be more. Somehow, she gets fic out of me.


End file.
